Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Not exactly on topic but I must pass this on.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"the definition of the health care workforce was amended so that it now 
officially includes, "licensed complementary and alternative medicine 
providers and integrative health care practitioners."


Health Reform 2.0: Help With the Work We Have to Do Next!
March 26, 2010 09:20 AM Mark Hyman, MD
Practicing physician and pioneer in functional medicine
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/health-reform-20-help-wit_b_513751.html

The health care reform bill has passed and many people will be celebrating 
that, finally, the United States will work to assure every citizen health 
insurance that cannot be canceled because you change your job, because you 
get sick, or for any other reason.

Remember this is just a start to the transformation of health care. While all 
of the things I worked for with my colleagues, Drs. Dean Ornish and Michael 
Roizen, on Capitol Hill the last year did not make it into the final bill, a 
few important things did and we can build on that. In fact, in my last 
meeting with Senator Harkin in December, he assured me that the passage of 
this bill would be just the beginning of reform and that after it passed we 
could move on to health care reform 2.0 that addresses more of the underlying 
issues about not only who is covered but what
is covered.

Those of us who believe in preventive health care, integrated health care, 
functional medicine, and complementary and alternative medicine have special 
reasons to celebrate. This bill has provisions that explicitly support these 
approaches to health care. One of these is the creation of a National 
Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, which I testified 
about before the Senate last February.

Today I want to introduce you to your new best friend, a friend who has been 
working on your behalf for years without your knowing it, a friend who had a 
huge role in seeing to it that this health care reform bill addresses 
preventive and integrative care.

The Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) was created in 2002 and 
has been quietly working on Capitol Hill to bring about the kinds of changes 
in health care that we all want. Last month, I was in New York presenting at 
the Integrative Healthcare Symposium and I was on a panel with IHPC's 
executive director, Dr. Janet Kahn. When I heard her describe what IHPC has 
been doing about health care reform and the things that are lying quietly in 
this bill, I got very excited about their work and what is to come in 2010.

Dr. Kahn explained 3 major aspects of this bill that IHPC helped shape:

1. Due to Kahn's work with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the definition 
of the health care workforce was amended so that it now officially includes, 
"licensed complementary and alternative medicine providers and integrative 
health care practitioners."

2. IHPC was a collaborator on the creation of the Wellness Initiative for the 
Nation (WIN), a document that prompted the inclusion of the National 
Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council that I mentioned 
above. Truly remarkable.

3. And third, IHPC worked hard to have the Council on Comparative 
Effectiveness Research in the bill. This will allow functional medicine 
approaches to be evaluated toe to toe with conventional medicine.

I often say that I practice functional medicine because it tackles and fixes 
the underlying causes of health problems and doesn't paper over the symptoms 
as so much of conventional medicine does. That is exactly IHPC's approach to 
health care reform. IHPC is about reforming the very architecture of American 
health care.

I encourage you to join the IHPC Online Action Network as I have done. Help 
move this work forward. By joining the Network you will receive updates and 
insider information about how IHPC is continuing this commitment to true 
health care reform; you will receive opportunities to communicate directly 
with Congress and the Obama administration; and you will be able to provide 
critical feedback on strategy, priorities, and the direction of this work. 
And most importantly, IHPC will be working every day on behalf of you, me, 
and all of us who believe in functional medicine, preventive medicine, and 
integrated health care.

Take action now and join the Network.